Don't, By All Means, Fall In Love With The Enemy
by I Don't Want To Be Alone
Summary: Why didn't you listen to me? Of all the times to defy me, you chose now. It was one simple rule: Don't, by all means, fall in love with the enemy. But what did you do? You went ahead and fell in love with the worst possible person! You just made your life a whole lot harder. Now you have the police on your tail, your friends are onto you, and your lover might potentially die.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

* * *

"You really are him. The insignia proves it."

My blood ran cold at her voice. I refused to meet her gaze as I tried to play it off. "I don't know what you're talking about…"

"Don't you dare play dumb with me, Natsu Dragneel! Turn around and face me!"

Her harsh tone made me cringe. I had two choices in front of me: run away or face her. The clock was ticking down and I made my choice.

I–

* * *

"Natsu, wake up!"

I yelped, fell out of bed, and landed in a tangle of blankets and pillows. In front of my face was a pair of school shoes tapping the carpet impatiently.

"Natsu, we're going to be late for school if you don't get up now!"

I groaned and pulled a blanket over my head. "Just go on without me, Wendy! I was planning to be late anyways."

Wendy pouted and grabbed my arm from under the blankets. "Come on, Natsu! I promised Uncle Igneel that I wasn't going to let you be late from now on!"

"Then don't make promises you can't keep," I retorted, grabbing my pillow as my cousin pulled me out from the pile of blankets on top of me. "Wendy, you're going to give me rug burn," I complained as I felt my bare back get hot.

"Then pull your own weight! Jeez!" Wendy let go of my arm when I was halfway into the bathroom. She kicked my side when I didn't move.

"Ow!" I exclaimed. "Okay, okay, I'll get ready…"

"Hurry up! Breakfast is waiting."

I watched the pair of school shoes leave the bathroom then heard the sound of a door opening and slamming shut.

I sighed from my spot on the floor and spent a couple minutes on my back before Wendy yelled downstairs telling me I had five minutes. I heaved a hefty sigh and got ready. I came out of my room wearing my white school shirt, half of it being untucked from my black school slacks. I left the red tie on the floor.

I came down the staircase ready to eat Wendy's special pancakes, but was instead greeted by a piece of toast stuffed into my mouth. Before I could realize it, my book bag was on my arm and I was out the door. I turned around and saw Wendy scrambling to get the door locked. I took a bite out of my piece of toast and let Wendy drag me by my hand to school.

I swallowed my last bite of toast by the time we reached Cait Shelter Middle School. I slowed down in front of the gates, but Wendy kept pulling.

"Aren't you going to school, Wendy?" I asked.

She didn't miss a step when she replied, "Of course I am, but I need to make sure you're actually going to school before I leave you. You're not ditching like last time!"

I thought back to a time when Wendy rushed me like this. She left for school first and I was left to spent the day hanging out with the boys; outside of school, of course. We made a bonfire and roasted marshmallows. I chuckled at the time when someone's shirt caught fire and we panicked, sending him flying into the river.

Wendy looked back at me, wondering what I was laughing at. I brushed it off like it was nothing and paused in front of my school gates.

I shook her hand off and said, "Well, I'm here. You can go to school now."

Wendy stayed put. "I'm not leaving until I know for sure you won't ditch!"

"And how are you planning to do that? Don't tell me you're going to watch me 'til the bell rings. You might end up late yourself."

Wendy shook her head with a confident smile plastered on her face. "I'm not going to watch you, Erza is!"

I stood staring numbly at my cousin until her words finally sunk in. "E-Erza, you say?" I stammered.

Wendy nodded.

"Why would you do this to me you little…" My words were cut off when someone came up from behind me and wrapped an arm around my neck. I could feel the muscles flex as her arm coiled tighter around my neck.

While I was gasping for breath, I heard a cheery voice next to my ear. "Natsu! I was wondering where you were when you didn't show up for class."

"Re-really?" I managed to choke out. The glare off her glasses and the eerily wide smile on her face told me she was far from what the tone of her voice was.

"I took the liberty of taking notes for the classes you missed. I think I left them in my locker. Let's go, Natsu," Erza seethed the last word and ushered me towards school with her arm still around my neck.

I saw Wendy waving goodbye at the gates and then she skipped off to school.

"You could've called in sick…"

"Huh?" I stopped struggling and looked at Erza. The glare off her glasses hid her eyes, but the tone in her voice was completely different from the angry one before. It sounded… sad? Disappointed? Displeased? I couldn't tell.

"Instead of ditching, you could have called in sick and caused less trouble for yourself," Erza explained further.

I remained silent and let Erza drag me into school. Before we reached the doors, I whispered, "If only it were that easy…"

* * *

"Mr. Dragneel, please clip on your ID before entering the classroom."

I rolled my eyes and shuffled through my bag. I felt what I was looking for under my textbooks and forcibly pulled it out. My student ID encased in a neon green case snapped out of the bag and I moodily showed it to my teacher. She shot me a dirty glance before nodding me in.

I shoved my ID into my pocket as I walked to my seat. Pulling out my chair, I slumped into the seat and waited for class to start.

"These clip-on IDs are such a nuisance. They're too flashy! Why do we have to wear these anyways?"

I casted a side glance at my classmates surrounding the table next to me. They were all chatting so noisily I couldn't help but to pick up on their conversation.

"I heard it's because of the Karen Lilica case at Blue Pegasus. A young adult who supposedly had something against her snuck into her school and stabbed her to death."

"Wow, that's scary!"

"And the worst thing was the killer supposedly walked away from the school, right in front of a teacher! The teacher was standing in front of the school gates after school and waved goodbye thinking it was one of his students!"

"Woah, but I still don't understand why we have to wear these. Why can't we keep it in our wallet or bag like a normal person?"

"I heard it's because the police said it would be more efficient this way; to detect suspicious activity faster or something."

"That's stupid. I think they're wasting their time."

An itch at the back of my throat urged me to yell at them to be quiet, but I restrained my urge and tried to tune them out. Hearing anyone badmouthing the police always made me peeved. I think it's because my dad is the chief in charge of Magnolia's unit and it's like they're saying my dad, himself, is stupid. I'm okay taking other peoples taunts calling me an idiot and being stupid because I really am, but when it's my dad I can't help but to feel annoyed. He's a genius and no one apparently knows it but us, his family.

I pulled an annoyed sigh and tried to get through class without punching someone in the face.

* * *

 _Tick. Tick. Tick._

I anxiously waited for the clock to strike three and ring the bell, signaling the end of school. Unfortunately it was barely eleven and I already wanted school to end. The bell for lunch rang instead and had to settle for that.

I started to walk towards the courtyard where my friends and I would eat lunch everyday, then the thought of sneaking out of school and ditching came to mind. I didn't really care if I had to spend the rest of the day alone, I just need to mess something up, badly.

I suddenly stopped in the middle of the hall and turn on my heels. It didn't even take two steps before I collided into someone and fell backwards onto the floor.

"Ouch! Hey, don't stop in the middle of the hall like that!"

I was about to snap back with a comeback when I saw who it was I bumped into. I blinked in surprise realizing it was Lucy Heartfilia.

The only reason why I remember her name was because she was the only person who didn't show up on the first day of school. She showed up the next, but since then she rarely attended school. Every time, she always came up with the same excuse saying that she was sick.

I had thought that she would turn out to be a delinquent the first time I expected to see her, but that image dissolved into a regular school girl who was too frail to step out of the comfort of her room.

"Are you going to apologize or what?"

The harshness in her voice snapped me back to reality and I realized that we were still on the floor. I tried to offer a hand, but she looked at it offensively and got up on her own. Without another word, she walked away.

I remained shocked at her rude behavior and scowled on the floor. "What was her problem? I tried to help, didn't I?"

I stood up and brushed off the dirt from my pants. Shooting one last glare at her departing figure, I proceeded down the hall and pushed through the double doors.

* * *

I raised my eyes at the berserk honking coming down the street. A few moments later, a car zoomed by in front of me while I waited for my turn to walk at the intersection. My hair and clothes tugged gently at the car and returned still. The engine was still thundering in the distance when I stepped up onto the curb on the other side of the street. I took a step then stopped when I heard eerie screeching in the distance. My eyes impulsively looked at the direction of the sound and sighed when I saw a stream of smoke rising to the sky.

I faced forward once again and led one foot in the other. Without realizing it, I found myself kicking a tin can my foot must've found next to an overflowing trash can. I listened silently to the satisfying, empty clank of metal on the concrete then stopped. Deeming tired of the can, my foot reeled back and kicked it into an alley. I guess I kicked it a bit too hard because it collided with an empty trash can, causing it fall over.

A loud hiss echoed in the alley made me jump. A flash of blue zipped out of the alley and clumsily crashed into my leg. It shook its head, confused and just sat there staring at a blank space. I cocked my head when I realized it was a cat that had vibrant blue fur. I picked it up by its scruff tentatively and held it in front of my face, examining the rare creature.

"What kind of cat are you?"

The cat shook its head again and looked at me with big, round eyes. It mewled and licked the tip of my nose. My hand jerked back and I raised my fingers to my nose. The cat purred and I subconsciously brought it to my chest. I cradled it in my arms and felt its purrs reach my heart.

"You're pretty cute. Maybe I'll keep you."

As if the cat understood what I was saying, it mewled once more and rubbed its head against my shirt.

* * *

 _Progress Log: Salamander found._


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

* * *

"Natsu! I told you not to ditch! I told you I made a promise...!"

"And I told you not to make promises you can't keep."

"...to Uncle Igneel and you know how I feel when I can't keep a promise. It makes me feel like a bad person, and I just get this heavy feeling in my chest that makes me feel so depressed and sluggish, and that breaks another promise I was suppose to keep, and it's this dreary circle of sadness, and..."

Wendy kept ranting about her bad feelings after she picked up a voicemail from my school. To be fair, I did go to the first few classes before lunch, then just didn't come back. It was an improvement from last time where I ditched completely.

"...and where in the world did you go to come back with a blue cat?"

Wendy ended her rant with the subject of the blue mass of fur in my arms. The cat yawned and tried to jump onto my shoulders. With a hand ready to catch the cat if it fell hovering underneath it, I answered, "An alley," and said no more.

I glanced at Wendy's face and saw from the furrowed brows and narrowed eyes that she wasn't happy with that answer.

Before I could clarify more, Wendy had already dropped the subject and moved on to a bigger problem.

"What are you going to tell Uncle Igneel? Isn't he allergic to cats?" Wendy probed.

"He is. Which is why I'm not going to say anything. I'll just keep this little fella in my room. I keep telling pops to stay out of my room anyways, so that fixes that problem right?" I walked away from Wendy and into the kitchen where the cat jumped off my shoulders and onto the countertop.

"But what if he does go into your room? Without you knowing?" Wendy didn't seem to pick up on my subtle signal that I wanted to end the conversation and kept asking questions.

I glared at Wendy from the fridge door and replied, "What does he has to do in my room? I'm practically an open book already. There's no use to go through my room to find out anything."

Wendy pressed her lips together and looked at her shoes. "That's true."

"Plus," I spoke with my head in the fridge, "it's a cat. It'll keep quiet. Isn't that right?"

The cat purred in response and flopped onto its side. Wendy leaned up against the counter and stroked the feline's side.

"Yeah... And I guess the vibrant blue fur has its advantages. If Uncle Igneel saw its shedding than he would never guess it would be of a cat's, right?"

"Now you're starting to think like me."

I laughed at Wendy's disgusted expression and retreated into my room with a cup of pudding in hand and the cat in toll.

* * *

 _Where were you after lunch?_

A bubble popped up at the corner of my computer screen under the name IceMake766 and I moved my mouse to click on it. I typed in the text box: **On the streets. Near our hangout.**

Another message appeared: _Looks like you left at the nick of time._

My fingers clicked on the keyboard. **Why? What happened?**

 _Erza dragged us all to lunch before we had the time to leave._

The corners of my mouth curved up. **Haha. Guess I was lucky.**

 _Yeah, haha. Better enjoy your freedom while you can. Erza was raging when she couldn't find you. We got caught in the blast, but you're gonna get the whole explosion._

The space between my eyebrows knitted together and I tapped furiously on my keyboard. My forehead smoothed over when nothing I would type came up on screen. I looked behind my computer and found the cat playing with the unplugged keyboard cord.

"Hey! Don't play with that!"

I picked up the cat and set it on top of a pile of clothes where it happily played with a sock missing its partner.

The cord snapped back into place and I retracted my hand from behind the computer. When I looked back at the screen, there was a straight row of the same word: _Dude._

 **Have some patience will you?!**

I sighed when another bubble popped up: _Dude._

Another bubble followed up: _Are you going to ditch tomorrow?_

I clicked my tongue. **Of course.**

 _Good luck getting past your sister and Erza._

 ** _For the last time, she's not my sister. She's my cousin._**

 _Well then, your COUSIN and Erza._

 **Getting past Wendy should be easy. As long as she doesn't take me to school by hand I should be good.**

 _Then I'll see you at the hangout. I'll tell the others. Later._

 **See you.**

I clicked the X on the window and leaned back on my chair. I reached over for my alarm clock that I knocked off the nightstand so many times and set it an hour early. I tossed it over my shoulder when I heard the rumble of the garage door. My desk chair swiveled out of my way as I thundered down the stairs.

My dad sluggishly crawled out of his car while I watched him from the doorway. He slipped past me and collapsed onto the couch in the living room.

"Bad day at work?" I asked.

"As always..." he replied.

"Why don't you quit already?"

My dad raised his head and looked at me for the first time time today. With his tired eyes, he strained a serious look on them, making him look older than his age. "You know why."

I sighed and looked away, knowing he was talking about my mother. I scratched the back of my neck in the uncomfortable silence as the memory of my mom's face started to resurface. I must've shown a pained expression on my face because my dad suddenly stood up and led me to the kitchen.

He sat me down on the kitchen table and slapped down a rolled up newspaper. It unfolded in front of me and in big bolded words, across the top of the paper: LOCAL THIEF CAUGHT.

"Finally caught the perp. May have took us a couple weeks to track him down, but we caught him!"

I smiled at my dad and said cheerily, "Congrats, Dad. You should show this Wendy. She'll be jumping for joy."

"Hehe, you think? Alright, where is she?"

My dad picked up the newspaper and rolled it up again as he looked for Wendy.

When he was out of sight I rested my head on my hands and softly banged my head on the table as I replayed what was on the paper. He didn't think I would read further down, but I did get a quick glance from the corner of the page: ...a dangerous group of thieves slipped past the police when they finally cornered the gang at the city bank.

When I returned to my room, I wasn't very surprised to find the blue cat sleeping selfishly on the middle of the bed. I gently pushed the feline to its half of the bed and crawled in beside it. My eyes fluttered shut and I drifted off to sleep.

* * *

 _Ring. Ring. Ri-_

The alarm clock that was once on the nightstand bounced off the carpet and stumbled into a wall. My hand hung over the edge of my bed, a dull sting lingering to my fingers. The bed underneath me creaked and groaned as I turned over in my sleep, grumbling an unintelligible complaint. Not even five minutes of silence passed before something soft and furry tickled my back.

I opened an eye a sliver and saw a blue paw take a swing at my face. I flinched and felt it lightly bat my cheek. I opened my eyes fully and glared at the cat in annoyance. It meowed and batted at my face playfully. Its playful antics slowly dissolved my anger and I chuckled, roughly patting its head.

My plans for today suddenly flashed through my head and the sheets covering me were suddenly thrown off. I kicked my crumpled uniform shirt into a corner since I won't be at school for the day and put on a red hoodie in its stead. My cat leaped and latched onto my shoulder while I was bent down putting on my shoes.

"What are you doing?" I asked and the cat stared at me with large, round eyes. I raised an eyebrow. "You wanna come?"

The little rascal sunk its teeth into the cloth of my hoodie and I took that as a yes.

With a blue fur ball stowed away in the pocket of my hoodie, I crept past Wendy's room and slinked down the stairs. I hid behind the railings as best as I could and peeked through the gaps. Not a soul was in the kitchen or the living room, so I made a mad dash for the door. The wooden floors of the living room was bathed in a light orange ray of light for a brief moment then returned to its oak color.

I leaned against the door and inhaled the crisp air outside. I smile crept onto my lips as I imagined the distressed look on Wendy's face when she didn't find me snoring away in my bed. A snicker taking my lips, I took a step forward and leapt back when I heard a voice.

"Ditching, I see?"

My mouth flopped open and I scrambled for words. "D-dad! I-I didn't see you… there."

My detective dad was leaned against his shiny undercover police car, almost like he was expecting me.

Remembering about the cat, I hastily shoved my hands into my hoodie pocket and tried to make the lump sticking out of my stomach as normal as possible.

An unnerving silence hung over us like a thick fog and I shifted uncomfortably. I finally decided to speak up, "...How'd you know?"

My dad made direct eye contact with me and said dead on, "I'm your dad that works as a detective. Is that a good enough answer?"

I pursed my lips and looked away. "Sharp as ever," I muttered and backed away from the sidewalk.

My hand touched the icy metal of the door knob when I heard, "Where are you going?"

"Huh?"

"I thought you were ditching. Your friends are going to get mad if you make them wait long."

I stood shocked at the door before the realization kicked in: he was letting me go. Flashing him a toothy smile in thanks, I sprinted down the street, making a left into town and to the hangout.

* * *

The smoke rising from under the bridge put a scowl on my mouth as I came close to the hangout. I took a deep breath and sighed in exasperation, annoyance building up in my chest. Spotting an empty plastic water bottle, I bent down and used it to scoop up some water from the river.

As I came closer, a guy with raven black hair stood from his lawn chair and raised his hand to greet me, but I merely passed shoulders with him and headed straight towards the source of the smoke. A tall, muscular man was busily roasting a marshmallow when I poured the bottle of water over the flames.

The fire disappeared with a hiss and I crushed the bottle in my hand. tossing it aside when the man abruptly stood up.

"What the hell was that?" he yelled.

I narrowed my eyes and the annoyance grew. "How many times do I have to tell you guys to not start the fire without me?"

"You couldn't wait 'til my marshmallow was done?"

The half roasted marshmallow with a skewer stuck through it was angrily thrown to the ground and then I suddenly noticed my shirt was suspending me from the ground. The man who was roasting a marshmallow just a minute ago was now inches away from my face, glaring daggers at me.

I frowned and replied to his question with another, "You couldn't wait for me to light the damn fire?"

"You couldn't wait until _after_ school to do this?"

My eyes widened and I stumbled on my feet when I was finally dropped. Whipping my head in the direction of the voice, I found Erza standing under the shadow of the bridge, crossed armed and annoyedly tapping her finger on her elbow.

I felt the blood drain from my face and I looked towards my friends for help.

They were gone. All the chairs were vacant and one was even turned over. I cursed them from under my breath.

"I'll deal with them later," Erza said with a sigh. I saw her hand went for the collar of my shirt. My shoulders tensed up and I squeezed my eyes shut.

I slowly relaxed when I felt nothing and cautiously opened an eye. Both my eyes were wide open when I saw my blue cat in Erza's arms. My hands felt the inside my sweater pocket where I found a gaping hole in front of my stomach. I pieced together the clues and assumed the cat clawed through my shirt and crawled up to my neck.

As I tried to figure how the cat climbed up my body without me feeling anything, Erza cleared her throat, reminding me of her presence.

"I'm just going to look over the fact that you have a blue cat and get straight to the point."

Erza ran her hand down the cat's spine as she spoke.

"If you don't want to get a beating, then run back home, drop off the cat, change into your school uniform, leave an apology note for Wendy on her door, run back to school all before the bell rings. If you are so much as a minute tardy then you'll have bruises until next week."

Shoving the cat back into my arms, Erza pushed me out from under the bridge and started the timer. "You have 20 minutes. Run."

* * *

 _Progress Log: 5 out of 5 subjects found_

 _-Titania_

 _-Black Steel_

 _-Ice Mage_

 _-Sky Priestess_

 _-Salamander_


End file.
